The Lion King: Dawn of the Nations
Episode 64: Superior
In the middle of the night, a loud and terrifying roar was heard in Nandari, the white rocky walls of the defile trembled as pieces of rock fell over the sandy ground. The scared and confused caracals exited their caves, along with their king, Nekeri, who rushed rapidly towards the growls and the sounds of falling rocks, followed by his mate, Nzuri. "What is that?" He narrowed his eyes while seeing a purple glow moving fast over one of the paths that led to the caves.
"It's...a lioness, I think." Nzuri opined.
"I didn't know lionesses glowed like th…" Nekeri gasped and stopped his steps when seeing the lioness ripping off the head of one of his subjects with a single bite, then the lioness hit another caracal with her strong claws, killing her instantly as her corpse smashed onto the rocky wall, leaving it covered with blood. "Go to the Pride Lands, ask the king for help." He told his mate with great worry. "I must go for my brother and his family."
"I won't leave y…" Nzuri was interrupted by her mate.
"Go! Please, I must take my family and my subjects to safety." He placed a paw on her face. "And I need you to be safe as well, stay in the Pride Lands, and wait for me there." Nekeri hurried away from her while she rushed in the opposite direction.
The lioness was strong and tall, she entered a cave and jumped at one of the caracals that were there, biting his chest and piercing his heart in an instant, killing him and chasing her next target after so, who was the mate of her previous victim. The frightened caracal had exited the cave, running erratically over the sandy and rocky path, the lioness approached her and threw a blow at her hind legs, tearing them to pieces, making the caracal scream loudly by the pain and fall to the ground, crawling with her front paws, as her hind legs were just hanging pieces of bone and skin, leaving a trail of blood on the white sand. "Help!" She let out a scream of agony as she cried. The purple glowing lioness let out a roar and bit her head, ripping it off and throwing it away.
"Get out of here!" A caracal exclaimed as he jumped at her with his paws and claws ready to attack, but the lioness hit his face strongly with her claws out, passing through skin, muscle and bone, destroying his face, then another pair of caracals rushed towards her.
"What do you want?!" The young caracal expressed with great hatred and confusion, and before he could try anything, the lioness pierced his throat with her claws, and threw him at the other caracal that was approaching her, making him fall. The remaining caracal cried as he tried to get his comrade's body off him, but the lioness walked by him and started to press his head against the ground with her big paw, making the caracal scream and screech loudly as she put more and more pressure, until his head burst. The lioness roared and kept looking for more victims.
Ngozi, king Nekeri's brother, and his mate Naibi, rushed hurriedly along with their cubs, Nuku, Vari and Makei. "What's going on?!" Vari exclaimed as she cried with great worry and fear.
"Just keep running, sweet." Naibi expressed as they entered a small tunnel that went into that side of the defile. The tunnel had several openings that let the caracals see out.
"I think we lost it." Ngozi said as they kept running hurriedly on the rocky and rough path.
The lioness' paw entered through one of the openings, the caracals let out screams of fright as some of them jumped over the paw while others ran under it, then they kept hurrying as the lioness roared.
The little caracals cried with great dispair. "Just look at the front…" Naibi told her children as she looked at the lioness who was running and growling on the other side.
The purple glowing lioness let out a loud roar and after taking impulse, she charged against the tunnel and destroyed it, making huge and sharp pieces of rock fall over Vari and Makei, crushing them.
"No!" Naibi exclaimed with tears in her eyes as she looked at the two corpses laying under the rocks, as ponds of blood stained the sand.
The lioness roared and tried to throw a blow at Ngozi, who managed to dodged it with a quick and sloppy jump to the side. "Naibi!" He was crying as well as his mate and son. "We must keep going!" He tried his best to speak without breaking down.
The lioness had her gaze focused on Naibi, who was walking slowly towards her. "You run, Ngozi." She said between tears and sobs. "I love you both, with all my heart."
"Naibi, what are you doing?!" Ngozi exclaimed with desperation.
"Run! Now!" Naibi jumped at the lioness and held onto her face, the purple glowing animal growled as she shook her head violently to try to get the caracal off her. "Run!"
Ngozi took a hesitant step to the back. "Let's go son."
"No! Mom!" Before Nuku could try to run towards his mother and the lioness, Ngozi grabbed him with his jaws and started to run away, crying as the wind made his tears vanish quickly as he ran.
"Dad! Let me go! We must help her!" Nuzu said between sobs and tears of despair.
The strong lioness rushed towards a rocky wall and smashed Naibi against it, making her let out a loud scream of pain, getting off the lioness' head and falling to the ground, barely moving as blood came out of her mouth while she groaned. The monstrous glowing creature growled at her and bit her belly strongly, tearing out her stomach and intestines as the caracal let out her last gasp.
"Ngozi! Brother!" King Nekeri had spotted Ngozi as he stood next to a narrow gorge along with a big group of caracals. "Over here!" Ngozi rushed towards them as he still carried his son in his jaws. "This passage will lead us to the Pride Lands, there is no way that thing fits in here." He noticed Naibi and his nieces weren't with him. "Where…?" He knew the answer to his question by only looking into the eyes of his brother, which reflected pure devastation. Nekeri sighed and gestured at the narrow entrance to the gorge. "You and Nuku go first, we have to move one by one." Ngozi obeyed his brother and walked towards the crack, putting his son down gently.
"Come on, Nuku. I'm here with you." Ngozi battled against the lump he had in his throat. His son just started to walk into the gorge while crying, followed by Ngozi and the rest of the caracals. King Nekeri entered last.
On the meantime, Emba, Chikere, Usu and Zale were sleeping in the Lion Guard's lair. As Faeze and Jantu entered, Usu's ear twitched as the sound of their steps awakened him, and as soon as he opened his eyes, he let out a brief scream of fright as he looked at Jantu. "Stranger!" Usu got onto his hind paws rapidly and adopted a hostile position.
Emba gasped as he also got onto his paws. "Hyena! What ar…"
"No, no he's a friend, Emba!" Faeze looked at Usu and Chikere. "Guys, it's fine, I brought him here."
"And...why?" Usu crossed his arms.
"Well, uhm...we need our strongest one, and he's very strong, trust me." Faeze replied.
Emba jumped from the rocky spot he had been sleeping on and walked towards Jantu, studying his looks. The hyena certainly had gained considerable muscle since Faeze and his friends rescued him. "You do seem strong. What's your name?"
"Jantu." The hyena said with a smile.
"Where did you find him?" Chikere inquired.
Faeze looked at the hyena. "Basically, my friends and I rescued him a while ago, he was in a very bad shape."
"He seems good." Zale opined as he sat down among them.
"Looks are deceiving, though." Usu said. "No offense." He looked briefly at the hyena, who just didn't reply to that.
"Well, it's clear we need strength in our team, it has been like that since the beginning, so…" Emba shrugged and placed a paw on the hyena's shoulder. "Jantu, from now on, you will be the strongest member of the Lion Guard, and your duty is to protect the Pride Lands, and the Circle of Life." The Guard's symbol appeared after a brief shine of light on his shoulder.
"Woah, look at that!" Jantu glanced at his symbol impressed and with a feeling of diligence and honor. He looked at Emba with gratefulness. "Thank you!"
"Awesome, now let's go back to sleep, shall we?" Usu proposed with a subtle frown on his face as he crossed his arms.
"Yeah, good idea. Also, what is that green stuff?" Emba referred to the green paste that the healers of Ferezan had put on their respective wounds, Faeze on his paw and Jantu on his neck.
"Something weird attacked us earlier on, a purple monster." Faeze said. "Jantu defeated it, but it still managed to hurt us."
King Nekeri, his now reduced family and the rest of the surviving caracals walked with a bit of relief as they were already far away from Nandari, walking through a dry forest. "It will take us a bit longer to arrive on this path, but it was the only way to avoid that thing." He let out a sigh. "I hope Nzuri arrived safe and sound."
Nzuri panted as she recovered her breath, walking towards Pride Rock. She sat down on the grass, taking a deep breath, then yowled loud enough to wake up Kion or anyone that could be around. Nzuri laid on the ground and kept recovering her breath, as she waited. Kion and Kovu got out of Pride Rock to check, then they walked down the rocky path that led to the ground and walked towards Nzuri. "Queen Nzuri." Kion bowed his head, he had been accompanied by Kovu who did the same.
Nzuri rapidly got onto her paws. "Kion, Nandari is under attack, our kind is being slaughtered by a...a lioness, but a glowing one and we couldn't fight bac…"
"A glowing lioness?" Kovu inquired with confusion.
Nzuri let out a sigh. "I know it sounds strange, but please, we need help! Lions, cheetahs, whatever you got...we are not enough."
"Hey, calm down Nzuri, I'm gonna send all the help you need, don´t you worry." Kion said reassuringly.
"Thanks, my king." Nzuri bowed at him again.
"Look for Nyumbani, Kovu and I will go and alert the Lion Guard." Kion and Kovu rushed towards the lair.
The now five members of the Lion Guard were sleeping peacefully, until Kion and Kovu entered the cave. "Lion Guard!" Kion exclaimed.
"Gah!" Jantu jumped by the sudden words that woke all of them up instantly.
"Hey! Who ar…?!" Kion got interrupted.
"Our strongest! He's our strongest, dad." Emba said as he approached his father. "What's going on?"
"Oh…" Kion noticed the Guard's mark on the hyena's shoulder. "Okay. Son, you must take the Guard to Nandari, the caracals are being attacked."
"Like...now?" Usu inquired before letting out a long yawn, then Kion looked at him with a straight face, making Usu sigh and take some water from the pool, cleaning his face to wake up a little more. "I mean, till the Pride Lands end..." Usu hopped on Faeze's back, ready to go.
"Lion Guard defend!" Emba and the rest rushed hurriedly towards the cave's entrance, until Jantu and Faeze groaned and stopped after running for just a couple of meters.
"Ouch…" Jantu said as the wound on his neck still hurt.
"Gah...my paw…" Faeze lifted his paw by the pain. "I forgot I was still hurt."
"What happened to you?" Kion looked at both of them.
"Something weird attacked us on Ferezan." Faeze explained. "A...purple lioness or something."
"Yeah, she glowed too." Jantu added, making Kion let out a gasp.
"Like the one attacking the caracals." Kovu looked at Kion.
"Wait, we have to fight that thing again?" Faeze said with worry.
"Not you two, definitely." Kion thought for a moment. "Kovu and I will go in your place."
Usu hopped on Kovu, making him gasp with surprise. "Sorry, you'll have to be my replacement vehicle." Usu patted Kovu's nape.
"Can't you just run on your own?" Kovu inquired rather upset.
"Yeah but I'm kind of in a comfort zone." Usu argued. "Blame the cheetah."
Kion sighed and gestured at the cave's exit. "Follow me, Lion Guard!"
The Lion Guard, Kion and Kovu exited the cave in a rush and headed to Nandari. As they hurried over the tall grass, already approaching the caracal nation, Chikere took a look at the defile with his sharp sight, seeing the purple lioness prowling vigilantly among the corpses. "I see her!" He notified then flew down to get closer to the Guard. "And also...a lot of victims."
"We must hurry." Kion replied.
After a long and arduous journey against the coldness of the night and the blowing wind, they finally arrived and got in the defile, already spotting the great purple glow of the lioness who was at the bottom of the rocky place. "So, what's the plan?" Usu inquired, looking at Emba.
"I think we sho…" Emba got interrupted.
"You and Chikere will distract her, while Kovu, Emba and I confront her directly." Kion told Usu.
"Uhm, yeah, we'll do that." Emba said, with a subtle tone of annoyance.
Chikere flew fast towards the strong lioness. "Hey! I'm right here, look at me!" He exclaimed as he got close to her snout, but he rapidly flew upwards as the lioness tried to bite him, growling with rage after failing. Kion approached the lioness from behind and tried to tackle her, but she barely staggered, looking at Kion with her menacing, glowing white eyes. Kion threw a blow at her face, making her groan slightly.
"Drop me here, edgy lion!" Usu told Kovu as he stood over his back with his hind legs, focusing his gaze on the lioness, who was throwing aggressive bites and blows at Kion, who evaded the attacks with quick jumps and dodges. Kovu got closer to the lioness, letting Usu jump at her, clinging onto her back.
"Edgy lion?" Kovu got in the lioness' way before she could try to throw a blow at Kion, holding her paws with his with strength as they both stood on their hind legs, growling at each other.
Usu climbed all the way to the lioness' head. "Let the oculist check those beautiful, bright eyes!" He poked her eyes with his fingers, making her blink and growl loudly as she tried to catch Usu with her big paws, but the meerkat jumped off her head quickly and landed gracefully on the ground.
"Take this!" Kovu charged against her and hit her head with his, bringing her down.
"Woah, nice one, uncle!" Emba praised and then ran towards the lioness, who was getting onto her paws while groaning by the pain on her head. "Now it's my turn!" Emba threw a quick yet strong blow at her snout, making her stumble.
Chikere flew down and started to flutter around her head. "I think she's giving up alr…" The lioness growled and threw a strong blow at the young eagle, scratching his wing, making him smash onto the ground painfully. "Argh!" His bleeding wing twitched as he got onto his talons, he tried to fly again but he couldn't bear the pain on his wing. "Ouch!"
"Chikere's hurt, dad!" Emba jumped onto a wall, resting his front paws on it while kicking the lioness right on the face with his hind legs.
"Kovu, take Chikere to safety!" Kion commanded as he approached the lioness, cornering her along with his son.
"Got it!" Kovu approached Chikere and crouched so the young eagle could stand on his back.
Chikere gasped and groaned as Kovu took him away from the battle. "Thanks, Kovu."
"No problem." Kovu said as he sought for a safe spot to leave Chikere in.
Kion jumped at the lioness and bit her neck strongly, she shook with enough violence to make Kion let go off her and hit a wall. "Gah!" Kion fell to the ground.
"Dad! Are you alr…" Emba got hit by a strong blow from the lioness, which left a deep scratch on his side. "Argh!" Emba fell to the ground, groaning and gasping by the great pain on his bleeding side.
Kion had gotten onto his paws, he approached his son rapidly. "Emba, that cut is deep, we must take you with the healers."
Emba stood up with great effort, gasping and trembling. "I know what to do."
"Emba, you're bleeding!" Kion exclaimed with worry.
"Leave that thing to me, I can handle it." Usu made a gesture as if he were lifting his sleeves.
"I won't fail…" Emba gasped. "...again!" He waited for the lioness to approach him as she rushed rapidly towards him. After taking a deep breath and standing firm on the sandy ground, the elders appeared in the clouds, majestic and powerful, waiting for Emba's roar, which he let out strongly and loudly, making the mountains and the ground tremble, sending the lioness away, causing her to leave Nandari through a long crack in the wall at the bottom of the gorge. The powerful effect of the roar vanished gradually, the clouds came back to normal and Emba fell to the ground.
"Son!" Kion exclaimed in great despair, putting his ear on his son's chest, sighing with relief as he could hear his heartbeat.
"Why didn't we do that from the beginning?!" Usu expressed with amazement.
"We must take them to the healers, quickly!" Kion carried his son over his back. "Hop on me, Usu."
"As you wish your majesty." Usu obeyed Kion, clinging onto his nape.
Kion and Kovu took Emba and Chikere back to the Pride Lands, running hurriedly through the brief forests and the large fields of grass. As soon as they arrived, Kiara received them.
"Oh my...thank Mungu you're okay." Kiara approached Kovu and nuzzled him lovingly.
"Call Zaire and Musabi." Kion asked his sister.
Musabi and Zaire, the healers of the kingdom, were attending Chikere and Emba inside the Lion Guard's lair, respectively. Faeze was laying down next to Zaire and Emba, looking at how the lioness was healing his friend, munching plants and applying the green paste with her mouth on his bleeding side. "Is he gonna be alright?" Faeze looked into Zaire's eyes with worry.
"Don't worry, the king brought him right on time. He will recover." Zaire smiled at him as she cleaned some of the paste and blood from her snout with her paw. "But right now he needs to rest as much as he can."
Faeze kept looking at his friend for a moment. "Can I stay with him?" He looked at Kion, who had been standing among them.
"Of course." Kion replied with a grateful smile.
"Thanks." Faeze looked at his friend's sleeping face. "I know he'd do the same for me."
Musabi had just finished applying the remedy on Chikere's wing. "So, how long until I'm able to fly again?" The young eagle asked.
"Two or three days, maybe." Musabi responded.
"Aw." Chikere looked away with disappointment.
Kovu approached him with a reassuring gaze. "You did well, Chikere. This is part of the job."
"I know but, I mean you are not even part of the Guard and you did way better than me." Chikere replied.
"We all did our part." Kovu smiled at him.
"Thanks for your help, Kovu." Kion looked at his brother-in-law, who just nodded at him. "Lion Guard." Kion looked at Chikere and Usu. "Well done."
"It's our…" Chikere groaned. "...pleasure, your majesty."
Faeze looked at Usu. "So, is she gone? The lioness?
Usu shrugged. "For now, I guess. Emba made her fly through the skies with his roar, it was pretty kipekee."
"I have a feeling she will be back soon." Kion expressed with intrigue.
Kovu got pensive for a moment. "I think I've seen her before."
Kion glared at him with a raised eyebrow. "When?"
Kovu shook his head. "I don't know, her face was just very familiar."
After a sudden silence, Kion broke it and began to exit the cave, along with Kovu. "Good night, Lion Guard. Rest well, you all deserve it."